SEOUL, Dec. 12 (Yonhap) -- South Korea "strongly" condemned North Korea's long-range rocket launch on Wednesday as a violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions, saying the communist nation will have to bear "grave responsibility" and face deeper isolation.

"This launch is a clear violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions ... and a threat to peace on the Korean Peninsula and around the world," Foreign Minister Kim Sung-hwan said, reading a government statement issued after an emergency meeting of the National Security Council.